Magarpatta City: Farmers Direct Investment (FDI)

Abstract

Magarpatta City covers 430 acres of land that was owned by about 120 farmer families with 800 individuals. These farmers joined together to form the Magarpatta Township Development and Construction Company Limited (MTDCCL) and developed the city, thereby realizing their dream of converting their land into a value-added finished product that gave them benefits and returns in perpetuity. Satish Magar is the de-facto leader of the group because of his educational accomplishments, political connections, largest land holding and the trust that the Magar community has in his leadership and ability to take them collectively to a point where all of them collectively benefit. Magarpatta City was conceived as an integrated planned township with multiple commercial zones, residential neighborhoods, school, hospital, shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and recreation areas. These were designed to be contemporary with futuristic features and included a state-of-the-art IT Park called Cybercity that provided international facilities to leading global IT giants. Being encompassed by verdant greenery and pollution free environment has added to the townships allure. The city has its own rain water harvesting, garbage segregation and waste management, biogas plant, vermiculture, plant nursery and solar water heating arrangements that creates a self sustainable system and ensures further enhancement of the environment. A walk to work-home-recreation lifestyle is at the core of Magarpatta. All these facilities came with complete support to run new cutting edge information technology infrastructure, full power back up, ample parking, stringent security, and strict adherence to fire safety norms. The case describes the process that the farmers went through to convert the raw material that they possessed (land) to a finished product, namely the Magarpatta Township. It illustrates the changes that the real estate sector is going through in India, issues related to getting government permissions for a township, conceptualizing, designing, planning, and constructing the township, marketing and financing the township, benefits that the township had for the farmers, residents, Pune city, business environment, and developing an organization that can carry forward the process of replicating the success of this model of real estate development.